american atheist magazine nov 1982
TRANSCRIPT
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THE 2.50
AMERICAN ATHEIST
A Journal of Atheist News and Thought
(VoI.24, No. 11) November, 1982
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AMERICAN ATHEISTS
is a non-profit, non-political, educational organization, dedicated to the complete and absolute separation of
state and church. We accept the explanation of Thomas Jefferson that the First Amendment to the
,Constitution of the United States was meant to create a wall of separation between state and church.
American Atheists are organized to stimulate and promote freedom of thought and inquiry concerning
religious beliefs, creeds, dogmas, tenets, rituals and practices;
to collect and disseminate information, data and literature on allreligions and promote a more thorough
understanding of them, their origins and histories;
to encourage the development and public acceptance of a human ethical system, stressing the mutual
sympathy, understanding and interdependence of all people and the corresponding responsibility of each
individual in relation to society;
to develop and propagate a culture in which man is the central figure who alone must be the source of
strength, progress and ideals for the well-being and happiness of humanity;
to promote the study of the arts and sciences and of all problems affecting the maintenance,
perpetuation and enrichment of human (and other) life;
to engage in such social, educational, legal and cultural activity as will be useful and beneficial to
members of American Atheists and to society as a whole.
Atheism may be defined as the mental attitude which unreservedly accepts the supremacy of reason and
aims at establishing a lifestyle and ethical outlook verifiable by experience and the scientific method,
independent of all arbitrary assumptions of authority and creeds.
Materialism declares that the cosmos isdevoid of immanent conscious purpose; that itis governed by its own
inherent, immutable and impersonal laws; that there is no supernatural interference inhuman life;that man -
finding his resources within himself - can and must create his own destiny. Materialism restores to man his.
dignity and his intellectual integrity. It teaches that we must prize our lifeon earth and strive always to improve
it. It holds that man is capable of creating a social system based on reason and justice. Materialism's faith is in
man and man's ability to transform the world culture by his own efforts. This is a commitment which is in very
essence lifeasserting. Itconsiders the struggle for progress as a moral obligation and impossible without noble
ideas that inspire man to bold creative works. Materialism holds that humankind's potential for good and for an
outreach to more fulfillingcultural development is, for all practical purposes, unlimited.
AMERICAN ATHEISTS AUSTIN TX 78768-2117.O.BOX 2117
S en d 40 f or o n e y ea r's m e m ber sh ip . Y ou w il l r ec eiv e o u r In s id er 's N ew s le tt er m o n th ly .
y o ur m e m ber sh ip c er ti f ic at e an d c ar d. an d a o n e y ear s u bs c rip tio n t o t his m a gazin e.
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Banco Ambrosiano - Nectar of the Gods 3
State/Church Separation and Abortion
(Congressional Record)
- Sen. Lowell P.Weicker 13
Why Humanism Is A Religion - Archie J. Baum 14
God in the Declaration of Independence
- Sherman Wakefield
16
Statement of Fred G. Lurie - Fred Lurie
27
EXCERPTS FROM BOOKS
The Christian Credibility Gap (excerpted by Frank Zindler)
- Hiram Elfenbein 22
REGULAR FEATURES
Editorial: The Few, The Proud, The Elite
- Jon Garth Murray 2
Sheep In Sheep's Clothing - Richard Smith ,
8
American Atheist Radio Series:
Legalizing the Symbolism of Religion 9
Anecdotes from An Early History of Jehovah
- Merrill Holste 11
The Means to the Beginning - G. Stanley Brown 18
Editor-in-Chief
Madalyn Murray O'Hair
The American
Atheist
magazine is pub-
lishedmonthly at theGustavBroukal Ameri-
can Atheist Press,2210Hancock Dr., Aus-
tin, TX 78756, and 1982 by Society of
Separationists, Inc., anon-profit, non-politi-
cal, educational organization dedicated to
the complete and absolute separation of
stateandchurch. Mailing address:P.O. Box
2117/Austin, TX 78768-2117.A free sub-
scription isprovided asan incident of mem-
bership in the American Atheists organiza-
tion. Subscriptions are available at 25. for
oneyear termsonly. Manuscripts submitted
must be typed, double-spaced and accom-
panied by a stamped, self-addressedenvel-
ope. The editors assume no responsibility
for unsolicited manuscripts.
The American
Atheist
magazine
is indexed in
Monthly Periodical Index
ISSN' 03124310
Managing Editor
Jon G. Murray
Poetry
Robin Murray O'Hair
Angeline Bennett
Gerald Tholen
Production Staff
Art Brenner
Bill Kight
Richard Smith
Gerald Tholen
Gloria Tholen
Non-Resident Staff
G. Stanley Brown
Jeff Frankel
Merrill Holste
Ignatz Sahula-Dycke
Fred Woodworth
On t he bac k
cover: Richard Viguerie's
first allegiance is to fundamentalist
christianity.
Austin, Texas
November, 1982
ON THE COVER
The original inspiration for GOD
WILL PROVIDE came nearly 17years
ago, when I spent a summer as a
Headstart volunteer. I was aware that
the hot lunch we gave these 4 and 5
year old children was often the only
true meal they had all day. At that
time, the Uptown area of Chicago that
our program served was predominant-
ly catholic. It was not unusual for me
to see a 30 year old woman (looking
90) who had more than 7 children to
take care of. I heard the same story
from many of them - they did
not
want more children, but when they
went to the priest witti their stories of
agony, the response was always god
will provide. Many, in despair, had
given up having sexual relations with
their husbands. The priests were un-
bending in their attitudes. Birth con-
trol meant a ticket straight to hell. And
yet, it was difficult to ignore that these
holy men never showed any signs of
deprivation. Hunger was not some-
thing they even related to. So the
image was in my head many years
ago. I think the catalyst for drawing it
was pope john pauill's visit to Ameri-
ca. He was shown blessing a family
with 7 or 8 children, and then went on
to say that it was better to have more
brothers and sisters than to have ma-
terial things. Like food. The image was
there once more. The picture I drew is
directed at all religious figures who
condemn birth control and/or abor-
tion, yet have never themselves
missed a meal in their lives. Besides
their arrogance, the suffering of the
children is the real sin.
Nomi
About the Artist: Nomi is a former college
teacher, but her art is self-taught. Anyone
interested in her other works should con-
tact the Tucson Chapter of American Athe-
ists/ P.O. Box 361921 Tucson, AZ . 85740.
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EDITORIAL
JON RTH MURR Y
THE FEW, THE PROUD, THE ELITE
As Director of the American Atheist Center one of my
many duties is to oversee the admission of new members
into the organization, American Atheists. The organization
has a standard type membership application which inter-
ested persons are asked to complete and submit with the
appropriate fee. On that application are a number of terms
that one may apply to one's lifephilosophy. A wide choice is
given ranging from Atheist to Objectivist to I evade any
reply to a query to my own appelation as given: .
Over the past period of about six months it has come to
my attention that persons applying for membership in
American Atheists (this journal being an incident thereof)
are in increasing numbers choosing any other lifestyle
designation of the choices given than Atheist. I believe
there to be a reason for this that isjustifiable in the minds of
those who choose to label themselves as other than Atheist.
That reason is very simple in that it, and the labels
themselves, can be denoted in one word. That word is fear.
Fear is one of, ifnot the, mainstay of established religion
in America. You may think when I say fear that I am
speaking of the traditional fear of burning in hell prornul-
gated by the fire-and-brimstone, tent-hopping variety of
minister. That isonly partly true. A greater fear is the fear of
being out of place, of not being accepted as a part of the
whole - the whole family, the whole school, the whole job,
the whole town, the whole community. Everyone must
belong to something or somebody, or so we have been
enculturated to believe.
In the lasting words of John Donne the lesson has been
taught and learned well by generation after generation:
No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; Every man is a peece of the
Continent, a part of the maine; ifa Clod bee washed away by the
Sea, Europe isthe lesse, as wellas ifa Promontorie were, as wellas
ifa Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any man's death
diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde;
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls
for thee.
Donne was no Atheist. In fact, he was one of the
outstanding religious fanatics ofhis day. But he does make a
valid point about our culture. The problem with Atheists or
near- or pseudo-Atheists is that they yearn to become a part
of the wrong whole. They are fearful of establishing their
own order, free from dogma, to have whatever comforting
loyalties and solidarities they wish just as wellas those they
hold hypocritically within the prevailing establishment.
At this point in our nation's history we are at a new high of
christian resurgence. Resurgence for what? To reestablish
the fear ofnonconformity to minimize the losses suffered by
attrition in more lenient times. The pope is probably the
best example of this in his return to medievalism. In that
push for return to basic or fundamental doctrines ofthe
church he is not asking of the catholics any more than
Falwell is asking of the protestants. Returning to basics
means returning to conformity. Fundamentalism cannot be
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November, 1982
only piecemeal with any given congregation. The nature of
religion demands fullparticipation in it by all concerned.
Fear has even spread into our economic system. All
commercial advertising is based in whole or in part on fear:
fear ofhaving your natural body cooling processes stain the
clothing under your arms. (Oh, what if someone saw me
sweat? The indignity of it alll); fear of not having the latest
model car; fear of body odor or Am I using the right
soap? ; fear of grey underwear or a dull kitchen floor.
So you see Ido understand why many newcomers to an
Atheist organization prefer another appelation than Athe-
ist. They prefer those other laels for entirely the wrong
reason. They don't prefer humanist over Atheist because it
better describes them, but because itisinnoxious. If,on the
other hand, all whom the label Atheist fit came forward
and used it with pride there would be a new whole , a new
body ofwhich to be part, withwhich to belong, that would
not disturb their encultured security.
Atheism is a label under which you can and should
maintain your individual autonomy but at the same time be
reinforced by the ideas and achievements of others freely
instead of in a rhythmic dogmatic way as inthe church. You
can stillbe a part of a group - just a different kind ofgroup.
Eclecticism does not necessarily rule our collectivism of
thought. Many individuals can all come to the same
conclusion about the same thing with input from widely
various sources and being from quite distinct backgrounds.
Atheism is a very fine example of that. Persons from many
different social, political, educational, monetary and reli-
gious backgrounds have all, for the most part independently
and eclectically, come to the same conclusions about
religion - leading them to the rejection of its principles. If
that isn't a strong basis for unity, Idon't know what is. What
better or stronger feeling of belonging could you have
than to belong to a group of people who achieved the same
result from the widest possible number of standpoints.
It's a very special group and Ihave a very special sense of
solidarity to it that I don't have to most. of the mainline
culture around me anymore. There is nothing the matter
with that. The black community isslowly coming around to
being proud to be black. They have formed a solidarity
around being black. As Dick Gregory said, Let them call
me
Mr.
Nigger Let them call me
Mr.
Atheist.
You may feel that you are downgrading yourself by giving
up a larger identity or a smaller one when you come out as
an open Atheist, but that identity will not always be the
smaller. Christianity was the smaller at one time, too.
Whenever I see those Marine advertisements urging
young men to join The few, the proud, the Marines, Ithink
to myself The few, the proud, the Atheists. That is one of
the main purposes of this journal. The information in each
and every issue Iview as a shot ofcortisone for the spines of
Atheists to help you on the road from weak arthritic
Atheism and residual fear to bold and forthright pride.
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Banco Ambrosiano
NE T R OF THE GODS
Back in the mid 1800's, Italy seized land which the pope
claimed to be his own property from the religious land wars
that the papacy had conducted in Italy for hundreds of
years. From 1848to 1870, especially under Garibaldi, Italy
had fought for unification of the boot. In 1867 land held in
mortmain (literally dead hand ) by the church was national-
ized; that is, it became by state fiat a part of the land of the
nation of Italy. The impotent papacy's only choice was to
sulk and to refuse to recognize a unified Italy or the loss of
its lands. Out of the turmoil of those years had come the
famous 'syllabus of errors, issued in 1864by pope pius IX
condemning every major principle of advancing civilization
and liberalism, then spreading throughout the nations of the
world. That syllabus has never been repudiated by the
roman catholic church and stands as a monument of
ignorance, intolerance, stupidity and reaction. The papacy
fought the advance of civilization in every country but
especially in Italy wherein it was based until 1929. In that
year, Benito Mussolini, an avowed Atheist but also a fascist,
bribed the vatican into recognition ofthe Italian government
and a blessing for his troops which were poised to invade
Ethiopia.
The ostrich reaction to all modernizing ideas of govern-
ment has been the classic of burying one's head in a hole in
the ground to pretend that nothing is amiss in the inter-
national community. This has been made into a high art by
the United States as well as the vatican, for our nation
refused to recognize that the USSR existed after the
revolution inthat country unseated the czar. The US never
extended diplomatic recognition and the USSR was said to
, exist de
facto
(i.e. in reality) but not de
jure
(i.e. by legal
recognition.) The US later exercised this same right(?) of
pretense with China, North Korea, South Vietnam and then
Cuba. However, it was quick to give de jure recognition to
both Taiwan, which posed as China for many years, and to
Israel, in the face of objections from the Palestinians. The
US learns wellits lessons ofintolerance from its mentor, the
vatican, in this as wellas other areas, such as those covered
in the Syllabus of Errors.
Nonetheless in 1929, Benito Mussolini gave a gift of $2
billion (1982 currency rate) to the vatican as compensation
for its loss of papal estates under the Italian 1867 confisca-
tion, which had occurred 62 years prior to his reign. Benito
sweetened the deal with $2millionof is own; recognized the
vatican as a soverign state, granted itcustom immunity, tax
immunity and innumerable special privileges. The vatican
took the $2 billion, $2 million and used the money to
purchase interests in Italian firms of credit and banking,
electric power, gas, steel, cement, textiles, pasta, agricul-
tural implements and communications. And, in return for
his favors the vatican assisted Benito and the fascist
countries to move money between the diverse warring
nations from 1939to 1945. Itthus soon became obvious that
the vatican needed its own bank. Of course, priests move
Austin, Texas
throughout the world on vatican passports. They need not,
and quite frequently do not, take out citizenship in any
country. They are agents of the vatican and need report to
none other. The ability to be monetary couriers is imrnedi-
atelyapparent. Nonetheless in 1942, in the the middle ofthe
Second World War, the vatican set up an instrumentality
which it was constrained to designate the Institute for
Religious Works. This has come to be called the I.
0
.R. In
actuality was then an international bank. Your editor has
visited often in Rome and, while there, the vatican. One
goes into the lOR to exchange currency, to cash travelers'
checques. It has teller's windows, vaults, all the parapher-
nalia of an ordinary working bank.
But, during this entire period from 1929 to the end of the
Second World War, the vatican moved into the Italian
economy and gained either controlling or strong interest in
thousands of that nation's business companies.
Again, your editor's personal interest was aroused when
Nino LoBello, a newsman living and working in Italy
contacted her, even making a trip to The American Atheist
Center in Austin. He was aghast to find out, in the mid
1960's that every bit of livingin which he was involved was
touched by the vatican. It owned the water company, the
gas company, the telephone company and the building in
which he lived - as well as the entire block of houses on
both sides of the street. He asked ifanyone was aware that
the home fuelof citizens ofMilan,Rome, Turin, Venice, had
to be purchased from the vatican at exorbitant rates. As he
checked further he found that the vatican owned govern-
ment bonds in protestant Britain. It bought gold from the
US Treasury Departments and ingots still on deposit with
the US Federal Reserve Bank are set aside and held for the
vatican. Ithad purchased the largest textile company inItaly
(SNIA-Viscosa), the largest construction company (Societa
Generale Immobiliare). As an interesting aside this is the
company which built the Watergate complex in Washing-
ton, D.C., the Montreal Stock Exchange in Canada and the
Pan-American Building in Paris, France. He explained to
your editor the magnitude of the building then in Italy,
pointing out that in 1966alone, this construction firmhad in
Rome built 3 apartment houses, 7 garden villages, 12luxury
homes, 2 office buildings each with 174 office units and 12
villagarden developments; in Milan3 housing projects with
62family dwellings, 18offices, 17stores, an 80 car garage, 7
other housing projects of 196 apartments and a shopping
center; in Genoa a 150 apartment development, 92 plush
apartments and a motel near the vatican owned Hotel Eden.
He could hardly believe that the vatican also owned the
Manifattura Ceramic a Pozzi which made the sinks, wash
basins, toilet bowls, bidet and bathroom fixtures put in not
alone in these units but used in almost every home in Italy. It
also then owned, controlled, or influenced by its substantial
holdings all of the following companies: Societa Mineraria
del Trasimeno (mining), L'Instituto Farmacologico Serona
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(pharmaceuticals), La Societa Dinamite (dynamite and
ammunition, La Torcitura di Vittorio Veneto (yarn), Fisac-
Fabbriche Italiane Seterie Affini Como (silk), Concerie
Italiane Riunite de Torino (furs), Cartiere Burgo (paper
products), Industria Libraria Tipografica Editrice de Torino
(publishing) and Sansoni de Firenze (also publishing),
Societa Santa Barbara (mining), Caffaro Societa per l'In-
dustria ed Elettronica (chemistry and electronics), La
Salifera Siciliana (salt), La Societa Prodotti Chimici Superfos-
fati (chemicals), Bottonificio Fossanese (buttons), Saici
Societa Agricola Industriale per la Cellulosa Italiana (cellu-
lose), Cotonificio Veneziano (cotton), Lanificio de Garvar-
do (wool), Fabbriche Formenti (textiles), Sacit (ready-to-
wear clothing), Molini Antonio Biondi di Firenze (spaghetti),
CIT (travel and tourism), and CIM (department
stores).
In addition, Italy has a unique institution called the IRI, the
Instituto di Ricostruzione Industriale. This is a public law
corporation to which the Italian government assigns speci-
fic entrepreneurial functions. It controls hundreds of firms,
including television and radio, railroads, airlines and ship-
ping, steel, automobile manufacturing and banking. The
single biggest investor in this conglomerate is the vatican,
which now owns controlling interest Nino LoBello was
concerned that the vatican, in actuality, owned the Italian
economy,
He was later to write to-expose-type books
concerned with his findings: in 1968, The Vatican Empire,
An
Authoritative Report That Reveals The Vatican as
A
Nerve Center of High Finance - and Penetrates The
Secrecy of papal Wealthand in 1972, Vatican, US
Of course, after the Second World War the vatican
prospered under the CIA-financed reign of the Christian
Democrats. The IRI now handles 40% of Italian investments,
the father company having 300,000 employees. And, the
vatican moved out to take holdings in Alfa Romeo (automo-
biles), Firmeccanica (engineering combine), Finmare (ship-
ping, and the lucrative banana market The IRI constructed,
for example, the Fiumicino Airport and the vatican profited
from it all. In Rome it now owns 102 million square feet of the
city proper. (There are approximately 2714 million square
feet in a square mile.)
And then, of course, the vatican got serious about banks.
We do know the situation in 1966 and it can only be
presumed that it has flourished since then. At that time the
three leading banks of the country, Banca Commerciale
Italiana, Credito Italiano and the Banco di Roma were
closely tied to the vatican. The Banco di Santo Spirito, it
owned outright, having been founded by pope paul V in
1605, one of the oldest banks in the world. The foremost
bank in the thigh part of the boot was, of course, Banco
Ambrosiano
in Milan, founded in 1896. In the mind 1960's'
Banco Ambrosiano
bought interests in three foreign fiscal
organizations: the Banca del Gottardo di Lugano (Switzer-
land), the Kredietbank S.A. Luxembourgeoise and the
Interitalia (both in Luxembourg.) All of these banks provid-
ed a service whereby Italians could acquire shares of foreign
mutual funds, through over-the-borders holding companies
free of investment regulations of any of the states involved.
But in Italy, the vatican was moving out. In the north it
owned outright seven of the largest banks: the
Banco
Ambrosiano
of Milan, the Banca Provinciale Lombarda,
Piccolo Credito Bergamasco, Credito Romagnolo, Banca
Page 4 November, 1982
Cattolica del Veneto, Banco di San Geminiano e San
Prospero and Banca San Paolo. It owned heavy interests in
13 others (names on request) and in 62 banks it owned
medium interest but had one or more agents of the vatican
on the board of directors or at the policy-making level
(names on request). On the tailing out of the situation there
were thousands and thousands of small rural banks spread
all over Italy owned 100% either by the vatican or by the
local parish church, which submits to vatican controls. This
does not speak to its outreach to the Swiss banking
institutions or those in the United States. The vatican's
intrusion into insurance and credit institutions in all coun-
tries is almost impossible to unravel.
-Sut, it is important to get to
Banco Ambrosiano.
Ambrosia, of course, means nectar of the gods - and
that it is. One of the principal characters in the drama is Paul
C. Marcinkus, an Archbishop of Lithuanian ancestry, born
in Cicero, Illinois. Marcinkus was moved to Rome in 1947 to
become an Archbishop there
later.Tn
Rome he became
involved in the early 1960's with a Sicilian named Michele
Sindona. The ties of the vatican to the Mafia has a long
history of speculation, but it should be pointed out that
Cicero, Illinois and Sicily are Mafia strongholds. It was in
Cicero, Illinois, that your editor was approached by a Mafia
envoy. She was told that throughout the kingdom the
traditionalist split of the gains of the Mafia was one-third to
the family, one-third to the poiiticians and one-third to the
roman catholic church. The envoy wanted to know how
your editor could help to put together a plan to cut out the
money to the church. Her immediate reaction was to get the
hell out of town as fast as she could.
Sindona was in Milan in 1947 where he met Giovanni
Montini, a monsignor who was later to become pope paul.
He eagerly entered the banking business for the church.
When the new pope took over in 1963 he called on
Marcinkus and Sin dona. Marcinkus was known then to the
Italians as II Gorilla. Michele Sindona had purchased the
Banca Privata Finanziaria which was pretty good for a man
who once drove US Army trucks in Sicily. There was rising
unrest in Italy, with the popular fronts moving toward
socialism and the Italian state, in financial difficulty, sudden-
ly decided that it wanted to tax the earnings on the vatican's
stocks and bonds. It was a several year fight before the
vatican finally agreed to pay, but even at this writing, it
appears that all that the State of Italy received was an
agreement for apparently no money has been paid. Instead
the vatican decided to transfer its holdings to the United
States. In 1969, the pope decided to sell the vatican's
controlling interest in Societa Generale Immobiliare and he
assigned the secret sale to Sindona, under the eye of
Marcinkus. The stock was sold to banks in Luxembourg
and Paris. A large chunk was sold to Charles Bluhdorn, who
had established the Gulf & Western conglomerate in the
US. Sindona soon moved into the US where, as an agent of
the vatican, he bought into Chase Manhattan Bank,
General Foods, General Electric, Shell and Standard OiL
This is not to say the roman catholic church in America was
not already heavily into the stock market with holdings in
Hilton Hotels, Grace (steamship) Lines, oil companies,
telephone companies, energy companies and - of course
- blue chip stock such as AT&T, IBM as well as all of the
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war industries. The roman catholic church in the US is
notorious for holdings in assumed names: Angela Co.,
Annunciata Co., August Co., Trubell Co., Bishop Co.,
Lamore Co. and ownership in the names of its orders
(priests and nuns), its fraternal organizations such as the
knights of columbus and its colleges and universities.
In 1972, Sindona bought controlling interest for himself in
the Franklin National Bank in New York and offered
Maurice Stans, Nixon's money raiser, a cool million in a
secret campaign contributions. (Stans did not accept the
deal.)
The vatican wanted diversified investments outside of
Italy and itbegan to selloffits major shareholdings inItalian
companies whileit became a conduit also to smuggle money
out ofItalywhich was becoming a communist country faster
than the pope would admit. The Italian government,
breaking loose from its CIA mentor - the Christian
Democratic party, began to demand that the vatican be
subject to exchange controls and banking regulations. The
vatican became more determined to transfer its holdings to
a reliable capitalist country base. But suddenly in 1974,
there was anywhere from
$150
million to
$1
billion of the
vatican money which simply disappeared, and when it did, 2
foreign (i.e. not Italian) banks collapsed. The first was the
Franklin National Bank of Long Island, New York, which
went into bankruptcy and the Herstatt Bank in Germany.
At this time, Sindona was found to have a network of
fiduciary trust, phantom holding corporations and phoney
deposits scattered everywhere. Although he was indicted,
found guilty and jailed, no one to date has really found out
anything about the maneuvers and no one knows exactly
how much money is missing.
It was felt that those primarily responsible were Marcin-
kus - IIGorilla, LuiggiMennini the second in command
at the lOR in the vatican and Sindona.
But the bankers of the world got together and in 1974
issued something called The Major Bankers Concordat
which was a statement ofan agreement that they would join
together to help bailout any bank which got into trouble.
Since Germany was financially shaky that first help went to
the Herstatt Bank in that nation, but in the good old US of
A, our government had to bailout the depositor in the
Franklin National Bank fiasco. The vatican made no
comments.
But something else which was rotten was going on.
Finally uncovered now by The Wall Street Journal, in 1982.
A former head of the Organized Crime Strike Force in
Southern New York had finallycome forward to talk about
a
1973
operation when he managed to get legal wiretaps
placed in New York and in West Germany to investigate a
possible securities counterfeiting scheme cooked up by
some of the same personnae. Itwas at that time uncovered
that
$950
millionworth of Pan Am, AT&T and other stock
was being counterfeited. The wiretaps resulted in 8 federal
indictments, 18 New Yorkstate indictments and guiltypleas
from a number of U. S. citizens. An Australian con man
(Leopold Ledl) claimed that his vatican connection had
ordered
$14.5
million of the bogus certificates for phony
collateral for loans and that he delivered these to a
monastery outside of Turin, Italy. Subsequently a book by
another author entitled just that, The Vatican Connection
Austin, Texas
is to be in book stores later this year.
It appears that the United States Department of Justice
went so far, in 1971, as to fly a representative to Rome to
talk to Marcinkus about his connection with it all. The
forthcoming book now alleges that he was to receive a $150
million kickback from the counterfeiting scheme.
By
1978
everything had gone askew. Money was missing,
Sindona had taken a
25
year rap, the Governor of Italy's
Central Bank was arrested and eased out of office, an
investigating judge in Italy, Emilio Alessandrini, was assas-
sinated and only a part of the turmoil was showing.
Well, what is the lOR? It's official name, as above
indicated, is the Institute for Religious Works. It has
approximately
7,000
customers which include the vatican,
religious organizations, members of the clergy and select
people who have assisted the church. Your editor's guess is
that it is also probably a laundry for Mafia cash. It has
perhaps
$2
billion in deposits and makes a profit of at least
$20 million a year. However, the Vatican is running a deficit
of
$20
to
$30
milliona year and it relies on the lOR profits to
fillthe gap. Since the exchange is internal in the vatican, no
one really knows what goes on. Peter's Pence, a voluntary
donation given each year to the pope by roman catholics
around the world has dropped off recently in magnitude so
that even the pope now wails that he is hard up.
Marcinkus is the chief administrator of the
108
acres of the
vatican, and he has virtual autonomy in running lOR, with
Luiggi Mennini second in command. When Sindona came
up with the major hole in the vatican finances it was thought
that Marcinkus would be eased out after pope paul's death
but he was instead reconfirmed. He probably knows too
much. The same situation appertained in the United States
with J. Edgar Hoover, a roman catholic who ran the FBI
with an iron hand for years. No one dared to remove him
from office.
Now, the story dramatically changes with a new charac-
. ter on the scene. A mere bank clerk, Robert Calvi, was
working at the Banco Ambrosiano during all of this time.
He came to work on time, kept his cage accounts in order,
was a faithful employee, all of that, and finally - lo the
miracle - he became the head of the Banco Ambrosiano.
This is now regarded as Italy's catholic bank, the l l th
largest in the nation. Once owned outright by the vatican,
since the selling off of interests the vatican is now alleged
to have only a
1.8%
interest, but no one knows for certain. In
the US we have long had. Olivetti typewriters for sale, and
that Italian firm manufactures other office machinery also.
The owner of the firm bought a stake in the Banco
Ambrosiano and within several months got out because he
was appalled at what he found. Whatever that means.
In
1967
the Banco Ambrosiano had reported a capital of
$6Y-tmillion with a net profit of $1.4 million, a fabulous 22%
profit. In
1980
Banco Ambrosiano was
790
million in the
hole on its accounts. In 1981, Roberto Calvi, its director
took
$26.4
million out of the country to Switzerland, was
caught, convicted, fined $19.8 million and sentenced to Y
years in jail. He immediately gave a bond and was out, still
head of the bank, pending an appeal. That's one story. On
the other hand, it is also said that Roberto Calvi was such a
fabulous manager that in 1981 the bank had tripled its
profits and had
18
to
19
billion in assets. Take your pick of
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the tales; the real one is never going to come out.
In spring, 1982, it was suddenly revealed that Roberto
Calvi was loaning money to
Banco Ambrosiano
subsidi-
aries elsewhere and then on June IOth he disappeared.
Prior to this however he became involved in a scandal
having to do with a secret faction of the Masons in Italy,
heavily roman catholic ( ) and dedicated to the destabliza-
tion of the Italian parliament, which was slowly moving to
the left. The faction was identified by its use of black robes.
One week after Calvi 'disappeared a short notice appeared
in Italian papers that his secretary had defenestrated
herself. In plain English, she committed suicide by leaping
out of a window. The next day Calvi was found hanging
under the Blackfriar bridge in London, quite dead. The
obvious connection of the black robed secret Masonic
faction and the name of the bridge, Blackfriar, sent chills
throughout the Italian banking world. A shaky inquist
verdict of suicide is simply not accepted.
. the reason for the two deaths was obvious when it soon
became apparent that the
Banco Ambrosiano
was not a
mere $790millionshort, but that the real figure was about 15
times that amount. There were $1.4 billion in loans corning
due and no one was around to pay them. Who had those
loans? Some Panamanian companies with mail addressed
only - paper companies - and not even that, mere
phantoms. They were Bellatrix Inc. (beatuiful trick ), Manic
Inc., Astrofine, Inc. Other names are unknown. The money
was loaned by Roberto Calvi from the assets of the Banco
Ambrosiano
because Paul Marcinkus of the lOR, the
vatican bank, had given what is called a letter of
patronage (or a letter ofcomfort ) to Roberto saying that
the lOR had controlling interest in about a dozen of these
Panamanian companies. This letter would not make the
lOR liable for the debts but such a letter of credit (as it is
called inthe United States) would clearly induce the
Banco
Ambrosiano
to approve the loan. Here, it gets sticky
because some of that money went to Peruvian, Nicaraguan
and Nassau subsidiaries of Banco Ambrosiano and it is
known that a Peruvian connection purchased the Exocet
missiles used by Argentina to sink several British ships in
the recent Falkland/Malvinas Islands war. The British
Secret Service, infact, isinvestigating ifthe $1.4 billion
went
to Argentina to finance its confrontation with Britain.
Meanwhile, the Argentine Society of The Defense of
Tradition, Family and Property began to take out half page
ads (even inthe
New York
Times, April 30, '82) on behalf of
catholic Argentina.
When the news got out, in late summer, the stock in the
Banco Ambrosiano fell so dramatically (30% to 40%) on
the Milan stock exchange, with depositors rushing to'
withdraw funds also, that for the first time in 64 years, the
Italian government closed the stock market. Do you read
any of this in your newspaper? So hushed is it all .
The Italian government moved inon August 6th, ordered
liquidation, replaced Banco Ambrosiano's Board ofDirec-
tors with a three-man commission; then decided to sell off
the investment portfolio of the bank, preserve some assets
of its core (particularly La Centrale, a major holding
company and Toro Assicurazioni, an insurance company)
and start a new bank called, Nuovo Banco Ambrosiano
under control of seven other Italian banks which have
Page 6
November, 1982
guranteed loans to rescue the operation of
Banco Ambrosi-
ano.
The Interminister Committee for Credit and Savings of
the Treasury Minister of Italy then went to the vatican and
asked it to assume its share of responsibility for the debt.
With alacrity, Marcinkus produced a purported year old
letter from Calvi dissolving the vatican lOR of any financial
responsibility for the loans. The Treasury Minister was
furious and attempted to serve legal process on Marcinkus.
Concerning the two letters the Treasury Minister stated,
The vatican must have known that the two letters could
not be genuine at the same time; the deal was intended to
defraud and to lead people astray. The powerful vatican
was then characterized as, at least, being guilty of acting
improperly in the transaction Itpointed out that the letter
alleged written by Calvi which absolved the vatican of all
responsibility for the loans had not been approved by the
Board of Directors of the Banco Ambrosi-
ana and, as a private letter, was worthless for the vatican's
defense.
The vatican, naturally, refused to accept any legal service
saying that it was a sovereign state and need not answer to
an Italian action. However, LuigiMennini is an Italian citizen
and that state promptly notified him that he would need to
stand trial in the Sindona affair of 8 years ago. Mennini, as
indicated, is the managing director of the lOR.
But meantime, the
Banco Ambrosiano
Holding Bank of
Luxembourg was found to be in default $400 million and
that state froze its assets. Luxembourg immediately notified
international bankers that in accord with their Major
Central Bankers Concordat of 1974 that it had a bank in
trouble. The bankers replied that this was not really a bank
introuble, itwas a bank (and holding company) which
was
involvent and they would not help. Then the Banco
Ambrosiano
Overseas Ltd. inNassau, Bahama, petitioned
the Bahaman court to liquidate it and the court responded
by suspending its license for 30 days (in late July.) Markin-
cus resigned from the Board of Directors of this bank after
Calvi disappeared. It is not known how much money is
missing there but that bank isapparently also insolvent. The
Banco Ambrosiano
had other subsidiaries, particularly in
Latin America, and news isnot inas yet on what willhappen
with them. The vatican is now stating that it does not own
the Panamanian companies which Markincus said itowned
and on whose behalf he wrote an lOR letter of patronage.
Much pressure was put on the vatican until it finally
agreed to an independent commission of inquiry appointed
by the pope to report their findings to the Secretary of State
- of the vatican. For the whitewash he chose a commission
of three loyal roman catholic bankers, one from the United
States, one from Italy and one from Switzerland. The
current status of the bank formerly headed by the American
is enough to raise the hair on your head. Joseph Brennan,
age 71, is the retired former chairman of the Emigrant
Savings Bank in New York. A graduate of roman catholic
Georgetown university he retired in 1978 to devote his full
time to US domestic roman catholic affairs. The Emigrant
Savings Bank is now in trouble, having lost $20.4 million in
the first quarter of this year. Estimating that its net worth
will be wiped by the end of the year, it has asked for
government assistance to keep it from being closed. Even
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- .
.~
y\tJf\lL { ~ u r
OG ,ETHE~
~l\.. TH E \EC~
T U
C R o S ~
l \l
~E~tJ CDll~CT\NC
P \M l) _ voilA.
the patient New York Times opines that the pope has
appointed an ineffective group.
Mostly in Italy, $1.4 billion dollars belonging to Italian
citizens have been lost in this bank fraud. In Luxembourg,
the loss stands at about $400 millionand perhaps the same
magnitude of loss has occurred in the Bahamas. Chase
Manhattan Bank now has announced that it may arrange a
$500 million credit for theIOR, but, of course, as indicted
the vatican has bought heavily into the stock of Chase
Manhattan. Now our countrymen will get their feet in the
glue.
Someone had to finance the arms purchases during the
?
o
Austin, Texas
war over the Falkland/Malvinas Islands and it looks like
Italian citizens were forced to do that, without their prior
approval or consent.
International banking isin trouble and the roman catholic
church is in the thick of it. But, in every nation and
particularly in the United States, bank frauds involving
other churches also are frequent. The same thing could
strike home in our nation any time. Money is the ambrosia
of the gods - and everywhere their henchmen reach to
control or to manipulate it, and they are protected by
government and the media because here in America the
churches are sacrosanct. ~
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Toward More Intelligence
Richard Smith
SHEEP IN SHEEP S CLOTHING
Humanism is one of those nice sweet words likemother-
hood. Who could possibly be against it? On its face it
connotes everything nice and noble to which anyone would
want to aspire.
However, motherhood has its drawbacks. Women can
bear too many children and cause desperate poverty as
they are presently (usually against their willat the behest of
the church or their male husbands) in Mexico and most of
the rest the world. Also, the image of traditional mother-
hood can be and is used by unenlightened men to subjugate
women. And women who have found themselves unwilling
to fit the socially-pressured role ofmotherhood have lived a
nightmare of guilt feelings or continued rebellion against a
callous society around them.
Similarly, humanism has its drawbacks. It can be used to
smother those who want to make some genuine improve-
ments for humanity. How? By diverting people's attention
from the anti-human actions ofsome people by overempha-
sizing that the antihumanists are human, too Thus, a
humanist reaction to someone like Hitler could be - Well,
he's human, too, so let's not talk about racism or militar-
ism. Even ifsuch were not the position of many self-styled
humanists, the effectiveness of their ranks would be
diluted by those who did hold such a position. Thus, they
could not work as much genuine positive good for humanity
as those who simply opposed racism and militarism. Those
who simply opposed such antihuman beliefs and practices
would not have to wear a badge of being humanist
because by simply opposing racism and militarism they
would be proving their humanism.
The same situation exists with respect to humanism
and religion. At present, we are suffocating under the
weight of antihuman religion. All religion is antihuman. The
origin of the word is to tie back and that is exactly what it
does - it ties humans up into a regimented structure of
beliefs and behavior. It is not a quest for ultimate value as
Mr. Bahm has confusedly asserted (quoting from an
authoritative grocery-store-quality paperback) in another
article, titled Humanism and Religion, in this magazine.
Religious believers do not quest for anything. They just
believe what they are told.
The essential component ofallEuropean and Mideastern .
religions (Note when we use the word religion, we are
using a European word.) is submission to a god's authority,
always ultimately through an intermediary. (Our under-
standing of the nature of religion is not advanced by calling
Asian religions like buddhism atheistic, since they make
Iitle or no effort to scientifically analyze god myths. They
also disdain the known world in favor of a mysterious
nirvana, which is equivalent to heaven. ((I'm referring to
the Encyclopedia Britannica, which I think is as good as a
Dellpaperback)) These buddhists do not regard hindugods
as myths but as merely inferior to their system. All
Page 8 November, 1982
buddhists have simply made buddha into a god - a
legendary, infallible authority - and they are
tied back
by
rituals and beliefs that have little or no basis in fact.) This is
the same as being a slave, and it is not a role fit for humans.
To condone slavery by focussing on the love that a slave
might have for his master is callous and truly inhumane.
Yet, that is the position of religious humanists as we have
seen stated by Archie Bahm. Nauseating, isn't it?
There are self-styled humanists who do call themselves
Atheists. However, they overemphasize their humanism at
the expense of the indispensable tool for humanity's full
mental emancipation - Atheism. No humanist group will
advertise its Atheists or Atheism. You have to work a little
to find that out. Can such behavior ever make the
necessary impact on our culture to free it from the most
powerful and most antihuman institution (other than the
military - which religion feeds) around - religion? I doubt
it for the same reason that Hitler could not be opposed with
a limpwrist. Such humanists do little service for humanity
by hiding from, or making friends with, humanity's true
oppressor - religion. What is needed is for Atheists to
stand squarely and openly against it. Religionists - not
Atheists - should be on the run. These humanists are
sheep in sheep's clothing, and they are on the run.
By not plainly calling a spade a spade, by not making it
exclusively clear that the only genuine humanism is Atheist
humanism, the door is left open for the religious human-
ists to infiltrate and cancel what positive good the Atheists
do - as Mr. Bahm has demonstrated. The same thing
happened to the women's movement early in this century.
Ida Harper's biography of Susan B. Anthony, The Life and
Works of
Susan B.
Anthony,
provides a clear example of
that. For 40 years Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.
Anthony liferally built by themselves the first organized
women's movement. They were Atheists and they es-
chewed religion, but they did not exclude religion from their
movement. Eventually religious women came into the
movement and overwhelmed it, refusing to give up their
religiosity. Soon thereafter, the women's movement ex-
pired (for 50 years), having achieved only suffrage. Similar-
ly, with religious humanists you can be sure that as far as
they are concerned keeping organized prayer out of
schools (something they never worked for) is enough, and
little more should be. done to antagonize other human
beings, even if they are mental slaves.
That is why American Atheists is the only group on the
horizon that I expect will ever the necessary resistance to
entrenched and established superstition, resistance that
humans in this country, hemisphere, and world need - not
only for their mental well-being but, as a corollary, for their
survival. That's -genuine humanism, and we don't need the
extra weigbt of a badge for it.
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THE AMERICAN ATHEIST RADI
LEGALIZING
THE SYMBOLISM
OF RELIGION
I don't know as yet what motivated your nation to
become almost hysterically christian during the period from
the end of the Second World War to date. It did.
Itstarted immediately after the World War, in 1946.First
a .series of acts were passed by the United States Congress
which authorized the Health, Education and Welfare De-
partment of the United States to give sectarian religious
groups whatever federal lands and buildings are declared to
be surplus by government agencies having their use.
As you willrecall in these programs I have given rather
extensive reference to Madison's answer when he was
approached to give federal lands to the church. The House
ofRepresentatives passed a billto give federal lands to the
baptist church in the Mississippi Territory and Madison
vetoed the billon February 28, 181l. His Veto message said,
Because the billin reserving a certain parcel of land of
the United States for the use of said baptist church
comprises a principle and precedent for the appropria-
tion of funds of the United States for the use and
support ofreligious societies, contrary to the article of
the Constitution which declares that 'Congress shall
make no law respecting an establishment ofreligion.'
The politicians who passed this series of acts giving federal
lands and buildings to sectarian religious groups deliberate-
lyviolated the First Amendment inorder to bolster religion.
But, it did not end there. For a series of other acts were
passed also. Let me inform you about some of them. On
June 25, 1948, 62 Stat. 907 was passed and in that act it
became mandatory for each federal judge or justice to be
sworn or affirmed into office So help me god, an official
recognition of a need for belief in deity in order to assume
office. This act violated Article 6, paragraph (3) of the U.S.
Constitution which says, ... but no religious Test shall ever
be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust
under the United States.
Eisenhower and Nixon went into office in January, 1953
and it was downhill then all the way. On June 14, 1954 the
words under god were added to the pledge ofallegiance to
make it read one nation under god. In the same year
special mailing rates were enacted by Congressional decree
to give all religious magazines a mail rate so low as to be an
actual federal subsidization of the religious mailings. Actual-
lythe legal fiction was developed that the religious need not
even subscribe to the magazines in order to have the low
rate and to have them mailed to everyone (wanted or
unwanted), since a part of the church budget could be
allocated toward such subscription requirement No other
organization is given this break.
Public Law 140 signed by Eisenhower on July 11, 1955,
that is about a year later, made it mandatory that all
Austin, Texas
currency and coins bear the motto In God We Trust.
Prior to this, dating from a campaign by one rev. M.R.
Watkinson, the coinage act ofApril22, 1864had designated
that In God We Trust be put on coins when and where
sufficient space in the balance of the design would permit
it. Now, under Eisenhower it came to be mandatory not
alone on all coins but even upon paper currency.
Again, a year later, on July 30,1956, Public Law 851 was
signed by Eisenhower. This officially ditched our old
national motto, E Pluribus Unum which means from
many comes one (from many people, one nation) which
had served our nation from revolutionary times forward.
The new
national motto
was designated and it was In God
We Trust.
By 1959, of course, I had begun the case to remove bible
reading and prayer recitation from the public schools, and
the federal government from 1963 forward introduced the.
Becker amendment, the Dirksen amendment, and the
Wylie amendment to return bible reading and prayer
recitation to schools.
The US Congress was so angry that in 1964 when the
CivilRights Law was in front of it, incredibly an amendment
was attached that anyone in America who was discovered
to be an Atheist could be fired from his employment without
recourse: that is, with no right to fight for his job, no
unemployment compensation, no nothing. This bill, known
as the Ashbrooke amendment, actually passed the House
of Representatives and was only stopped narrowly in the
US Senate.
Then, in defiance of the case of Torcaso u Watkins (367
US 488) and indefiance of the US Constitution, Public Law
89-554 was passed on September 6, 1966 (80 Stat. 424; 28
USCA 331) that any individual elected or appointed to office
of honor or profit, in the civil service, or the uniformed
service (except the president) had to take the oath, or
affirmation So help me god upon entering office.
Of course, by then, in 1965 the massive money break-
through had come for religious schools under the Primary
and Secondary Education Acts. By that time the segment of
the United States claiming roman catholicism as a religion
had increased to a politically significant number and this
was simply a bid for that vote.
In early 1969 president Nixon introduced religious cere-
monies into the White House. Inlate 1969the Apollo VIII,in
circling the moon, was given the task of showing the world
what a christian nation could do. In a carefully pre planned
gambit, code named Experiment P-l, actually pro-
grammed into the flight plan, the astronauts were given the
military order to have a spontaneous manifestation of
religious awe at 7:31 PM plus 10seconds,and to, under the
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influence of the christian euphoric mood, recite the first ten
verses of genesis, all carefully pre programmed and pre-
printed into the flight plan for them.
And Billy Graham prayed that it would all come off all
right.
I think it also important to remember the bitter battles
going on yet around the so-called Blue Law cases, for the
important ones came up in this period since the Second
World War also_ Two Guys uMcGinley (366 US 582) 1961
and McGowan u Maryland (366 US 420) the same year
were both examples of the United States Supreme Court -
since it could not legislate Sunday as a day of god's rest -
keeping the blue laws intact by the gross pretense that
Sunday as a day of rest belonged to all of western culture.
The unprincipled yielding to religious pressure was poorly
disguised.
But parallel with this has gone many other straws in the
wind - which is what our vaunted principle of state/ church
separation has become - a simple straw blown where the
religious community desires to blow it and with the United
States government giving every accomodation to the
religious community to do so.
Ihave investigated the history of the process of naturaliza-
tion. I began this when a trembling Egyptian came to our
offices in Austin, Texas after an eight month frightening
go-round with the Department of Immigration and Naturali-
zation of the United States. Actually the transcript of
testimony he gave me coincided with the findings in In Re
Weitzman, 426 F. 2d 439. In that case a woman was denied
her citizenship because of her involvement with Atheism
and in the appeal to a federal court won only because a fluke
occurred. Since she was a jew in her rearing and ethnic
identity one federal judge said he would count her as still a
jew - and she got in. The entire case was on an objection to
bearing arms but the plight of the Atheist was ardently
discussed. Justice Blackmun, now on the US Supreme
Court, sat on that case and he quoted an earlier judge with
relish: One cannot speak of religious liberty without
assuming the existence of a belief in a supreme allegiance to
the will of god. The case was a portent of things to come.
Selective Service cases were just about as bad and in the
cases of US u Seeger (380 US 163) decided in 1965 and
Welsh u US (398 US 333) decided in 1970 it came through
loud and clear that A registrant who was an Atheist ...
would not be permitted entitled to classification as a
conscientious objector. In both cases men who little
relished religion were interpreted to have some of the same,
that is in the objector's own scheme of things, religious
and focusing on some external force greater than human
relationship.
Some of the law is absurd. In Anderson uLaird, cadets at
West Point tried to escape from attendance at church. The
case is still in the appeal process (Editors Note: That case
was later won infauor of the cadets in 1972. 499 US 1076).
In that the government contention is that such compulsory
attendance is a purely secular exercise carried out for
purely secular reasons. I can almost hear you cry out,
What could it be? Why the officers must be trained to
understand the religious sentiments of their men But, in so
doing, the roman catholics go to mass and the protestants
to services and the jews to their synagogue. They never
Page 10
November, 1982
cross sectarian lines
In January 1972 the US voted to circumvent all copyright
laws in order to give the mormons a perpetual copyright to
their religious books. In February 1972 the Equal Employ-
ment Opportunity law was amended so that all religious
organizations are exempt from it. Now, the Black man who
cleans up at the local roman catholic church may need to be
roman catholic to get the job. And, in March, 1972 the Dept.
of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance issued an
order that all federal contractors, subcontractors and
federally assisted firms are required to keep records of
religious affiliations of their employees and determine the
number of jews and roman catholics occupying executive
and middle management positions.
Who is paranoid now?
There is a concerted legal drive to make us into a
christian nation symbolically - and it contravenes all the
concepts of state/church separation with which we began
the nation.
I call this the fight for religious symbols. The religious
people in our community are not that dumb. They recog-
nize that they can't get what they really want - tax money
- unless and until they can convince everyone everywhere
that this is a christian nation. The state has its own axe to
grind. For the special privileged position of religion, for its
being sacrosanct and protected in that image by the state a
favor needs to be returned.
The Constitution of the state of New Hampshire let it all
hang out some years ago. That Constitution states:
As morality and piety, rightly grounded onevangeli-
cal principles, will give the best and greatest security
to government, and will lay in the hearts of men, the
strongest obligations to due subjection ..
Beginning in 1946 and coming to date the ground has very
carefully been laid to make us appear to be one nation
under god where prayer and where the oath (or affirma-
tion) of So help me god is important, where everyone in
public office allegedly has entered into that office under a
religious test.
In our continuing confrontation with the Federal Com-
munications Commission we are told over and over again
that there is no controversy in respect to religion in
America, that Atheists do not have a right to speak. Every
radio or TV station which refuses to sell us time stands on
the FCC regulations and rulings against us. Every station
which sells us time does so on its own sense of fair play.
Until earlier this year the total impact of my investigations
had not hit me:
No church in any age of man, no religion, has ever won
either the mind or the heart of man. Left alone,
without the power of force to support it, every
religion, every organized church has failed. The state
has given that force on most occasions. Churches and
states have acted in concert since there has been
either one or the other. Standing alone, trying to get
its own adherents by the force of its doctrines alone,
every single church and religion has failed and has
been succeeded by another in the struggle that
religion has undertaken for survival.
Now is a good time to see that the failure is final. Despite
these laws, I'll see what can be done. Won't you join me?
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Merrill Holste
ANECDOTES FROM
THE EARLY HISTORY
OF JEHOVAH
The gods grow and develop with the passage ofthe years
just as do the tribes of people who create them. The
development of jehovah, as recorded in the old testament,
is an interesting illustration of this fact. The concept of
jehovah as an infinite, omnipotent and omniscient god is a
late development in religious thinking. Students ofcompara-
tive religion know that all the ancient Semitic peoples,
including the Hebrews, as is conclusively shown in many
bible texts, believed in numerous baals - lords, or gods of
different localities such' as rivers, trees, ravines, stones,
mountains and temples. Each locality, of course, was
believed to be the private preserve of its own particular
tutelary spirit - ghost, spook, nymph, dryad, pyxie, satyr,
faun or god. The Hebrews believed as all the other Semites
did, that their god was one of many; that each nation had its
own god, allof which were every bit as real as their own. The
first commandment, as was supposedly given by jehovah
himself, Thou shalt have no other gods before me, insists
upon the existence of other gods. Unless the Hebrews did
believe in many gods, such a commandment would have
been completely unintelligible and pointless.
The exodus story relates some of the original Hebrew
ideas about their jehovah. At that time they believed he
appeared to them in a pillarof cloud byday and a pillarof fire
by night. Such a belief conforms to the primitive Semitic
idea that gods were immanent within some object of nature
- river, tree, ravine, stone, temple, altar, relic, etc., etc.
The Hebrews, according to tradition, wandered in the
desert of Arabia for many years. Travel must have posed
quite a problem to the superstitious, stone age people who
believed in a multitude of locality gods. Their leader and
chief magician, moses, who learned the arts and wiles and
priestly subterfuges in the land of Egypt, devised a plan
whereby they could keep one god for themselves and
remain the peculiar people and sole possession of this one
god, jehovah. Moses, inhis role ofmagician, had his artisans
make a magic-box out of sacred shittim wood. In his role
of priest, he induced their jehovah to adopt this box as his
temporary home so that the porters could carry him about
with them. Keeping one's god locked up in this way seemed
sensible to a primitive savage who wanted to go travelling,
for in those days gods were notoriously jealous, evil-
tempered, blood-thirsty and quarrelsome. The Hebrews
adopted the god-in-a-box plan as the best way to keep their
god from getting mixed up in a lot of useless god-fights with
all the other jealous, bloodthirsty, small-time locality deities
through whose numerous territories they planned to pass,
loot and possibly take over for themselves. Moses's igno-
rant dupes of stone-age culture were eternally grateful to
him for devising such an ingenious scheme - and they are
Austin, Texas
still grateful today - billions of dollars' worth.
The god-in-a-box fable was a universal piece of intellectu-
al baggage among all the tribes in the eastern Mediterrane-
an area. Greek mythology contains a story about pandora
who, through curiosity, opened a box containing all the evil.
spirits, thereby, permitting their escape to plague mankind.
Egyptian mythology, long before moses, contained a story
in which their evilgod, typhon, made a box, likewise called
an ark, into which he induced his brother, the good god
osiris, to enter. Typhon clamped the lid down, soldered it
tight and cast it into the Nile. Thus it became osiris's coffin.
A story in the
arabian nights
tells of the fisherman and the
djinn. In this fable a fisherman found a bottle while casting
his nets. When he opened it, a diffuse pillar of smoke came
out, rose to the clouds and then collected itself together by
. degrees until it became a fierce supernatural being or god
called a djinn. Inorder to dispel the fisherman's unbelief, the
djinn obliginglyreversed the process and entered the bottle
once more, much as jehovah, the cloudy pillar-god of the
Hebrews, must have done when he crawled into moses's
ark. The
arabian nights
stories arose from the same
storehouse of Semitic myths as did the fables in the old
testament.
It isn't hard to demonstrate that the Hebrews once
believed they actually had their god confined in a wooden
box. This edifying story is recorded for us in I samuel,
chapters 4 through 7. In many bible passages we can read
how jehovah promised to fightfor the Hebrew tribesmen in
their battles. Since they thought they had their jehovah in
their box, they decided to test his fighting powers. They
tried to use the sacred box as a secret weapon by carrying
it with them into a battle against the Philistines. As a result,
the Philistines captured the Hebrews' magic-box, defeated
them, and proved the Hebrew god to be what he always was
- an impotent fetish whose alleged promise to fight inbattle
for the Hebrews was only a baseless priestly imposition.
That the Hebrews were convinced they had lost their god
when they lost the sacred box isshown by their extravagant
though brief affectation of grief and by the fact that they
immediately returned to their original worship of local
fertility deities - baal and ashtoreth. Nor did they worship
the traditional jehovah again till his return more than'
twenty years later, still cooped up within the magic fetish-
box. This story, written by Hebrews and for Hebrew
readers, makes out that the Philistines were convinced that
they had in actuality captured the Hebrew god. On its
return, the sacred box passed through the land of the
Beth-shemites and of Kirjath-jearim. The people in these
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places, according to the Hebrew-told story, also credited
this magic-box with containing the Hebrew jehovah. In I
samuel 6:19 we read that the men of Beth-shemesh were
killed because they looked into the sacred ark of the
Hebrews. Why? Checking with exodus 33:20 we see the
reason, as given by the Hebrew scribes. We are told that no
(unconsecrated?) man might look upon jehovah's face and
live. Any Hebrew of that day would have understood that
the Beth-shemites had looked upon the face oftheir jehovah
crouched in a corner of his box, glaring back at them with
beady, baleful, malevolent eyes, putting such a hex on them
that 50,070 of them died before its venom had been
assuaged.
In
I k ings
chapter 8, we read about the installation of the
sacred box inSolomon's temple many years later. We note
inverse 9 that the magic box was reported to be empty save
for the two tables of stone. The reason for emphasizing the
emptiness of the box appears in the next two verses where
we are told that the cloud of god filled the temple.
Therefore, their god could no longer be in that box as visual .
examination had supposedly shown. Obviously, the cere-
mony of dedication had either cajoled or permitted the
Hebrew fetish to resume his cloudy shape and leave his box
to take up residence in the roomier quarters afforded byhis
new temple. The installation of their cloudy god in a fixed
place of habitation had been the ambition of the Hebrews
for many generations before Solomon finallyaccomplished
it. That surely was a long time for a supposedly omni-
present, omnipotent, omniscient god to be cooped up in a
box So far, we secularists have never heard any adequate
explanation from either christians or jews of this glaring
theological incongruity.
invented by moses and carried about in a wooden box,
unable to act for himself or to know what to do unless
previously instructed by some practitioner of religious
magic. We have many evidences that the
real
christian faith
is in the little fetish:
1. The billions of dollars collected for propaganda
purposes.
2. Their efforts to insinuate their myths into the public
schools.
3. Their efforts to influence government in their god's
favor.
4. Their efforts to begin a church-controlled censor-
ship of literature.
5. The final evidence that the christians have no faith
in the proclaimed attributes is the constant effort
made by christians to squelch by law any possible
criticism of the little fetish they borrowed from
barbaric stone-age Hebrews.
The christians show no sign of realizing that their fetish-
deity ison exactly the same cultural and intellectual level as
theju-ju fetish of the African witch-doctor. There isonly one
saving difference - in favor of the African, for, when he
discovers that his fetish is a fake and powerless, he has
sense enough to smash it and make a new and (he hopes)
better one to take its place. The christian witch-doctor
(preacher or priest) on the other hand, upon being told that
his fetish is a fake, a fraud and powerless, tries to keep up his
money-grabbing sham, tries to safeguard his racket by
smashing and suppressing by law all criticism of his fetish.
Ifthe christians could have their way, they would enforce
upon us all the old errors embodied in their myths. They
would soon proclaim the earth to be flat; the sun to revolve
... A story in the
r i n nights
tells of the fisherman and the djinn. In this fable a
fisherman found a bottle while casting his nets. When he opened it, a diffuse pillarof
smoke came out, rose to the clouds and then collected itself together bydegrees until
it became a fierce supernatural being or god called a djinn. In order to dispel the
fisherman's unbelief, the
djinn
obligingly reversed the process and entered the bottle
once more, much as jehovah, the cloudy pillar-god of the Hebrews, must have done
when he crawled into moses's 'ark.'The r i n nights stories arose from the same
storehouse of Semitic myths as did the fables in the old testament.
The christians advertise at every opportunity their belief
in those mythical attributes for their god. Always the
christians are loud in professing belief in the grandiose
attributes, yet their actions always betray the fact that their
real beliefis inthe same littletribal deity who once crouched
in a Hebrew fetish-box. They prove this by their constant
prayers telling their fetish-god what to do about this, that
and the other thing. They constantly make the welkin ring
with millionsof payers suggesting, instructing, commanding
their little fetish what to do about every minor detail oftheir
lives exactly as any African witch-doctor instructs his fetish.
Such profession of belief on the part of christians is only
empty talk, coming only from the mouth. By their actions
the christians prove clearly that secretly and deep down in
their hearts their real belief is in the same powerless fetish
Page 12 November, 1982
around it again; the rain to leak out of holes in the floor of a
brassy, material heaven as it did in the days of noah; the
stars to be once more mere lanterns hung on the under side
of the brassy heaven in.the evening and put away in the
morning by the host of heavenly angels; men would once
again have one less rib than women; and all diseases,
epilepsy, insanity, etc., would once again be caused by evil
christian devils and demons, only to be cured by exorcism
duly practiced by christian preachers and priests. And it
would once more be heresy punishable by the inquisition
and by burning at the stake for scientists who dare to deny
that such misconceptions are true. The true nature of the
christian religion and its aims should never be forgotten. It
has not changed one iota in the past 1900 years ~
The American Atheist
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t o n g r t s s i o n a l t c o r d
PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES. OF THE 97
th
CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION
United States
America
Vol 127
No. 78
ASHINGTON; THURSDAY, MAY 21, 1981
Senate
Excerpted from. the Congressional
Record, May 21, 1981
Mr. WEICKER - The law of the
land that we are now operating under
by virtue of the last continuing resolu-
tion states as the exceptions except
where the life of the mother would be
endangered if the fetus were carried
to term or except where such medical
proced ure is necessary for the victims
of rape or incest and such rape has
been reported within 72 hours to a
law enforcement agency or public
health service; nor are payments pro-
hibited for drugs or devices to pre-
vent fertilization of the implanted
ovum; nor for ectopic pregnancy.
Of course, the language we are
dealing with today has as the only
exception the life of the mother. So
we have not debated what is before us
today. This is a ban in the extreme.
Mr. President, I think it is incon-
ceivable that Senators on this floor
are going to insist that a woman who
has been raped carry that baby to full
term. Yet that is exactly what will
happen if the Hyde language is adopt-
ed as a part of this appropriations
bill. Even in that regard, it is only
those who are indigent or poor who
will have to carry the baby to full
term. I really do not care to hear
anything about the judeo-christian
ethic or morality when that kind of
reasoning dominates this floor.
Mr. President, I have heard a great
deal- I am going to use exact quotes
from two of the speakers this after-
noon. One referred to the fact that we
are running the country by divine
commandments. Somebody else re-
ferred to instructions from Sinai.
That is the whole issue and it is one of
the great issues before this body.
I care not a whit what any particu-
lar religion states, Mr. President, and
neither should any of my colleagues.
Our only duty is to make certain that
every individual can believe anything
that he or she wants and is free to
practice the articles of their faith in
this nation without any interference
from their government. That is the
only matter that is the proper con-
cern of this body; not judeo-christian
ethics or divine commandments or
instructions from Sinai ...
Despite Sen. Weickers argument, the Senate voted 52-43 to deny
Medicaid abortions to women pregnant by incest or rape. Today,
Medicaid will provide an abortion only to save the life of the mother.
I am not pleased even with the
restrictions that presently exist in the
law; but rape and incest are excep-
tions, the life of the mother is an
exception, an ectopic pregnancy is an
exception, birth control devices are
an exception. The law has been set
forth very clearly on the matter of
abortion, and the public policy has
been set forth with great clarity.
This little procedural end-run of
legislating on this particular appro-
priations bill is meant to obviate all
that public policy and all that law.
The reason given is some sort of
vague reference to orders from above
as to what is right and what is wrong.
... We do not legislate in god's name
but in the name of the people of this
country and its Constitution. That is
the precept that is going to be vio-
lated by this type of legislation, and
there will be no end to it. .. Make no
mistake: Should this be adopted -
and the life of the mother is the last
exception on the books - it will not
be long before that is gone. Then
someone's religious belief will have
been fulfilled.
There is great error in what is being
presented before this body today.
If you care to write to Senator Weicker to congratulate him on his courage in
making this statement on the Senate floor, he is:
Senator Lowell P. Weicker,
313 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Or, if you care to call his office his telephone number is (202) 224-4041.
Austin, Texas
November, 1982 Page 13
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Scattered throughout the members of American Atheists are to be found, from time to time, humanists or unitarians
who exhort us to the example of the national organizations of the same and state what they conceive to be the superior
position of these two groups. The argument is that the humanists and the unitarians are, allegedly, based on a much
more sophisticated position with, clearly, a hightone soft sell which Atheism is said to lack. We are constantly told that
the use of the word Atheism is abrasive; that we must reach out a hand to our religious brethren.
Again and again we have pointed out that the unitarians believe in one god. That is the meaning of the word unitarian.
And, the humanists cling both to religion and the pseudo- respectability that they feel the cover of religion gives to them.
The response has been that both humanists and unitarians are really superbly suave Atheists and that we do not know
what we are talkin~ about to snv that they still suffer from the cuitural Iao of relioious residuals in their thotl~ht
We are,
therefore, delighted to bring to humanists and unitarians
only
in our
ranks, the position of
The American
Humanist Association stated in its newsletter Free Mind under date of December, 1981. Read and learn. For Atheists,
we do not recommend that you read it. Our typesetter and proofreader had a difficult time keeping a settled stomach
when working with it. We dont really want to pass the nausea on to you.
WHY HUMANISM IS A RELIGION
At stake are two questions: What is religion? What is
humanism?
What is Religion?
The misunderstanding of the nature of religion is unfortu-
nately widespread and persisting. The most popular concep-
tion, based on generalization from too few examples,
identifies religion with belief in god, specifically with the
judco-christian-islamic conception of god. Acquaintance
with some additional examples extends the meaning to
include belief in gods and in supernatural or superhuman
powers. But too few people know that some religions,
jainism and theravada buddhism, for example, are explicitly
atheistic.
Jains, believing both that souls are eternal and that the
world is everlasting, have no use for a creator. Believing that
persons must earn their way to salvation - that is, freedom
from rounds of reincarnation - entirely by their own
efforts, Jains practice generosities and austerities to in-
crease their stores of good karmas, which, when suffi-
cient, result in release from Earth. Belief in a savior not only
is unnecessary but is considered an evil, for willingness to
accept help from another is cheating and this results in bad
karmas and greater distance from the goal.
Theravada buddhists believe that all is impermanent;
there are no permanent souls or selves, no permanent
deity, and no permanent things of value. They too have no
need for a creator, since nothing permanent can be created,
and no need for a savior, since appealing for help increases
bad karmas and prolongs the evils of illusory life. Not only
are jains and theravada buddhists explicitly atheistic in their :
doctrines but they regard religions upholding belief in god,
or creator or grace, as inferior religions.
Other examples are available, but these two should
suffice to demonstrate that defining religion as belief in god
is false. Widespread ignorance of this falsity persists and
provides a basis for misunderstanding about humanism as a
religion.
If religion is not essentially belief in god, then what is it?
My conclusion after a lifelong study of and teaching about
religions is: Religion consists in concern for ultimate value
and how to attain it, preserve it, and enjoy it (The Worlds
Page 14 November, 1982
by Archie J. Baum
Living Religions, Dell Publishing Co., 1964. p. 16).
Orthodox christians locate enjoyment of that ultimate
value as a beatific vision of a perfect god in heaven after
death. Orthodox hindus (advaitins) locate it as nirvana, a
state of bliss from which all self-awareness has disappeared
at moksha. Orthodox jains locate it in an isolated celestial
state freed from desires, motives, and satisfactions. Ortho-
dox theravadins locate it in a cessation of self-awareness as
well as of all desires and satisfactions. All of these religions
locate the ultimate values beyond life. They also recognize
minor and subordinate values within life, but, generally
speaking, the purposes of present life are to serve achieve-
ments beyond this life. Their aim is humanistic in the sense
that they seek what they believe to be best for human
beings. But their explanations of what is best make them
anti- humanistic.
What is Humanism?
Humanism, on the other hand, claims that persons
should locate and seek t